


She's a Little Runaway

by NoirAngel011



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Child Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, On the Run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 12:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18969202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoirAngel011/pseuds/NoirAngel011
Summary: You come across a young girl tucked away behind the bushes at the local library late at night. What will you do?Readers POV. Referenced child abuse and neglect. Not a romantic fic.





	She's a Little Runaway

**Author's Note:**

> Y/N= Your name
> 
> Y/S= The state you from
> 
> F/N= Your friend's names
> 
> Y/GPA= your GPA.

It's late at night. You're trying to make just a quick run to the library book drop to return your overdue books. You're holding the three thick books in your arms. You push them down the shoot and turn to go back to your car when you hear a sniffle.

You turn around fast and pull the flashlight off your key ring, shinning it into the bushes.  A teenage girl looks at you like a doe caught in headlights. She has her knees pulled up to her chest and has tear tracks down her cheeks.

She looks terrified. You lower the light and take a step forward. She scoots back against the wall. You take a step back, trying not to scare you, as if she were a cat.

"Hey, girlie. I'm not gonna hurt you. It's okay." You say, reaching a hand out for her. She sniffs again. 

When she speaks, her voice is small and quivering. "He'll find me sooner or later." She buries her face in her knees, her body being racked with silent sobs.

"Who's going to find you?" You ask. You walk over to her, scooting around the bushes. You kneel down next to her. 

She looks up at you with watering eyes. Blue is surrounded by red from crying. Her long red hair is messy and you can see a bruise on her cheek and a mark that looks like fingers around her neck, almost hidden by the collar of her jacket.

"Bil-Billy" she stutters. You stop, moving your hand away from the smaller girl. You know that name. He goes to your school. Billy Hargrove is Hawkins' resident asshole. You had heard that he had a little sister, and here she was in front of you. Hiding from him at the library at eleven o'clock at night.

"Hey. It's okay. He's not going to find you." You put a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch away from you before she leans into your touch.

"How about we start over. What's your name, kiddo?" You brush over the tips of her hair that touch her collarbone, moving it out of her way.

"Max. What's yours?" Max shivers from the December chill on the northern town, only wearing a dark red windbreaker. It was doing a terrible job at keeping her warm. 

"Cute name. I'm Y/N." You hold out a hand and she gingerly takes it, shaking it twice before letting go.

"It's cold" Max mutters, looking down at the ground and pulling her coat around her tighter. You stand out and hold out a hand to help her up.

"Come on. I'll take you back to my place and you'll be safe for the night. He won't come looking for you in Loch Nora." She looks up at you apprehensively, then takes your hand and you pull her to her feet.

You lead her back to your car and open the passenger side door, letting her climb inside. You go around to the other side and sit down, Max shivers next to you and you crank up the heat. You twist your car key into the ignition and turn on the engine, heading off towards the fancy neighborhood.

Once your back home, Max has warmed up some front the car heater. Who knows how long she had been out there. You guide her into the house and she slides off her shoes and jacket in the mudroom. Max follows you into the kitchen and you open the fridge.

"You hungry Max?" You take out a jug of Kool-ade you had made that morning and grab two cups from the cabinet. You pour the drinks and slide one over to her. Max drinks it slowly. 

"I'm kinda hungry. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday." Max says, taking another drink from her cup.

"Kinda? Girl, how are you not starving?" You joke, going over to the pantry and pulling out Kraft mac and cheese. She giggles and looks around the room.

"I can't cook very well, but I can whip up some Kraft dinner when the late night munchies hit during my two am insomnia." You laugh. Max laughs too.

"Or when a little girl shows up at your door," you add, turning around from the stove to smile at her where Max sits at the island on a barstool.

"If I remember correctly, you took a practical stranger home," Max says. You smile, her sass is hilarious and she's got some spice for a thirteen-year-old.

Soon you have mac and cheese on two plates and are sitting across from Max at the island. After a few minutes, you speak up. 

"So, tell me about yourself, Max." You say. She looks up at you and gives you a sad smile.

"Well, I'm thirteen. I'm from California. I live with my mom, my stepdad, and my stepbrother. I moved here three months ago. I don't have any friends. I have a 3.4 GPA. Oh, and I like to draw." Max says. She takes another bite of her food and looks up at you.

"What about you? What do you like to do?" Max asks. You smile at her. You tell her about yourself. She finds out that you're seventeen, you are from Y/S. Your best friends are F/N and F/N. You live alone and you have a Y/GPA grade point average.

When you finish eating, Max offers to wash the played and you decline, perfectly fine with doing it yourself. You take her upstairs and lead her into the nearest guest bedroom. 

"There's a bathroom right over there. You can take a shower and brush your teeth and I'll go get you some clothes." You point over to the bathroom door and she nods, waiting for you to leave before she goes inside.

You walk down the hall to the closet at the end and pull out a box from the top, setting it down on the floor. You sift through it until you find a tank top and a pair of sleep short that look like they would fit Max.

You take them to her room and hear the shower turned on, Max was singing softly. She sounded really good and you stopped to listen for a minute before leaving the room.

You're sitting downstairs int he living room watching TV when you hear footstep coming down the stairs.

Max comes over and sits down next to you. You smile at her and she smiles back.

"Thank you for letting me stay the night. You don't know how much this means to me." She says. You can now see marks on her arms and bruises on her legs.

 _"God, what did he do to her?"_ You think, looking over her marks.

"It's no problem, Max. It gets lonely here in this big house alone. I can't even imagine letting Billy find you either. You can crash here however long you want. I really don't mind." You lift her chin up so she's looking you in the eyes.

"Really? I can stay all weekend?!" Max asks, sounding excited.

You smile and nod. Max hugs you tight, her smile was blinding.

"Now, get to bed. It's been a long night." You ruffle her hair and Max nods, getting up and running up to the guest bedroom. In ten minutes when you get up to go to bed you peak into her room and find her fast asleep in the bed. You smile.

You lay in bed that night and think about the past two hours. You had just wanted to drop off some books and came home with a stray kid. You're kinda surprised that you can have an actual intellectual conversation with a middle schooler but not anyone at you high school. But really, you would hate to have just left her there, so scared and weak.

You didn't even know the full story and you felt so bad for her. Hopefully, now Max could get a peaceful night sleep away from her family. You fell asleep thinking about Max. You didn't know why, but something about the kid made you actually feel protective of someone for once. It felt nice to care about another human for a change. You hoped that she would stay for the weekend and you could learn more about her. But for now, you were content with sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> This was kinda weird and random. Written in less than two hours. Leave a review and tell me if I should do more POV stuff like this! Max is just a precious baby that needs to be protected.


End file.
